PBS show about women in China

China From the Inside:Women of the Country

(This is one of four different episodes debuting this week. Will be re aired throughout the week. Click here to check your local listings)

"There's a saying among men, 'Marrying a woman is like buying a horse: I can ride you and beat you whenever I like.'" -- Xie Lihua, Women's magazine editor

Photo: A woman prepares food for a New Year meal.


China's women have always been under pressure: from men, from family, from work. Now more and more are under new pressure -- from themselves -- to take control of their lives; to get an education; to have a career; to marry for love. It's a slow, difficult process, and it is changing China.
Mass migration from the countryside to the cities is increasing prosperity, but fracturing families. It also gives women new roles -- whether running the farm back home, or as wage-earners in the city. Xiao Zhang has lived in Beijing for 14 years, cooking and cleaning. This episode follows her home to her village 600 miles away for Chinese New Year, where she is reunited with the children she hasn't seen for a year. The cameras capture the visit of the local Birth Planning Officer to check on young wives, the plight of unwanted girl babies and abortion issues, and a village wedding which turns nasty.
The film also explores the discrimination suffered by Xinjiang's Muslim women, the hardships of life in Tibet, and China's tragic suicide figures: China has one of the highest suicide rates for women in the world: 150,000 a year. One every four minutes.
Finally, we see a glimpse of urban life where the younger generation of women has left the countryside for factory work in the cities. The hours and conditions are tough but the women are slowly gaining confidence and independence.

Olivia Update, translated

We still have not gotten the official translation, but Andy's coworker, Hang, came to the rescue :) Thanks, Hang!

• she is now in a foster home and is closest to her foster mom
• she can count "1,2,3,4" and if an adult says, "1,2," she finishes with "3,4"
• speaks in 3-5 word sentences and can make her needs known
• she understands when adults talk to her (Chinese, of course)
• will go through a book page by page
• can build a tower of eight blocks
• is fond of listening to music
• is timid and fairly introverted, shy with strangers
• will sometimes cry if spoken to too loudly
• gets along well with others
• is obstinate sometimes
• has a ready smile
• goes to the bathroom by herself
• is a deep sleeper
• likes fruits and breads (in addition to staples of rice and soup)
• knows to take pail and cloth in preparation for bath
• if hands are dirty, knows to clean with water
• can go up and down stairs
• can hold a pen and scribble and can imitate straight lines
• uses thumbs and fingers deftly--can pick up a pill with thumb and index finger
• can eat by herself with a spoon--no chopsticks yet
• will comfort other babies if they cry
• plays with other kids with no problems
• likes to imitate adults, pretending to take pictures, use phone, sweep floor, etc.
• can put on shirt, button clothes, and put on shoes
• favorite activity: outdoors
• favorite toy: new toys (in foster care, she may finally have something of her own!)

It's also interesting to note some of the items NOT checked. It's hard to know how accurate the information is, but according to the report she:

• might not know opposites
• might not know "big" and "small"
• might not know the color red or two kinds of colors
• might not ask "what is this?"
• might not be able to name ten animals or objects in pictures
• might not know what "cold," "tired" and "hungry" mean
• might not be able to imitate drawing circles or crosses
• might not be able to jump off floor with both feet

Overall, it sounds pretty good for a kid who has lived most of her life in an institution! We are happy to learn a little more about her and can't wait to bring her home :)

RongXian, Home of Overseas Chinese

ChinaToday.com:

Rongxian County, Home of Overseas Chinese
By XU JING

Zhenwu Pavilion, the only ancient building in China in good repair without the aid of reconstruction. (click image above to enlarge)

RONGXIAN County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is famous as the hometown of overseas Chinese. They number 700,000 -- equivalent to the county's current population.
Rongxian is also well known for its tourist destinations. The Zhenwu Pavilion is well preserved, despite no rebuilding of any kind over the past 400 years or more. The pavilion comprises a structure of some 3,000 pieces of timber, perfectly assembled according to the lever principle. The four hypostyle columns on the second floor that are suspended from the ceiling and support it, the roof girders, tiles, and roof-ridge ornaments, are its most impressive feature. Shiliyangwai Village is the birthplace of Yang Yuhuan, favorite concubine of Tang Emperor Xuanzong, and a renowned beauty in Chinese history. A park has been built in the village enshrining the life of this legendary lady. A Taoist sanctum, Duqiao Mountain is noted for its red-rock geology, graceful soaring peaks, lush forests, and labyrinthine caves. The 108 by 88 meter character for Buddha engraved on its Qingshou Rock, in the calligraphy of Zhao Puchu, late chairman of China Buddhism Association, is the largest of its kind in the world.
Rongxian County has an established reputation for its local products, such as Shatian shaddock, anise, litchi, longan, Yanxia chicken, tea, and turpentine. While maintaining the output of its traditional produce, the county also cultivates new businesses, such as fast-growing forest, mulberry, and bamboo. Agricultural industrialization has led to a marked improvement in the local farmers' standard of living. In Heding Village the anise growing annual per capita income stands at 8,000 yuan. All households are two or more storied and own motorcycles.
Rongxian is a hotbed of investment. The HK Zhonggang Auto Body Plant and Rongxian Lisheng Auto Decoration Plant co-invested 88 million yuan in setting up the Lida-Zhonggang Auto Decoration Engineering Co. Similarly, the HK Huanan Building Material Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Gaofeng Artificial Board Co. co-invested 150 million yuan in founding the Guangxi Gaofeng Artificial Board Co., Ltd. The county also houses over 150 industrial projects transferred from eastern China. Meanwhile, the county has stepped up contact with overseas Chinese of Rongxian origin, and gives incentives to overseas Chinese-invested enterprises. To date, such enterprises number 25, at a total investment of US$ 60 million. Burgeoning overseas investment and tourism is believed to have given impetus to the county's agricultural modernization, industrialization and urbanization.
Rongxian is traversed by the Yulin-Rongxian and Rongxian-Cenxi grade-one roads. The asphalt and cement roads linking its 16 towns weave through and across the county, and its picturesque Xiujiang River makes visitors loath to leave this luxuriant and beautiful landscape.

Just playing with virtual hair again

I think she's adorable just the way she is, but it's fun to imagine what she'll look like when her hair grows out! It's interesting how much older the hair makes her look!

Sponsoring an orphan

In response to some questions about how $40/m can provide a home for an orphan...

There are some wonderful organizations formed by adoptive parents with a desire to help those left behind. One such organization happens to have recently partnered with Olivia's orphanage and is called Grace and Hope. Of course you can donate any amount, but for $38-41/month you can make a huge impact on a child by enabling him/her to move out out of an orphanage and have a more normal life in a Chinese foster home. Sponsors get quarterly reports about their child.

If you're interested, you can donate online (via PayPal or check) by clicking here
https://www.grace-hope.org/(saf4ff55k1h1rvqh2gljaq55)/Donations.aspx This link will walk you through the process asking if you want to sponsor a child at a specific orphanage and then if you'd like to sponsor a "healthy" child for $38/m or $41/m for a "special needs" child, and then gives you the choice of paying monthly or in a yearly sum. Note that there will be a 3.5% charge for using PayPal, no charge for checks.

If you're interested in sponsoring a child, but aren't in a position to part with $40/month, let me know and maybe we could pool money from multiple families :) It would be wonderful if we could get all nine of the RongXian kids a foster home! It'd also be neat for Olivia to learn about her friends in the quarterly reports!

Grace & Hope For Children
465 N.E. 181st #210 Portland, OR 97230

NEW UPDATED PIX OF OLIVIA!!

The photo with the bear is dated 10/24/06 and the one in the pink vest is dated 11/29/06. Isn't she cute??!! I can't make out most of her update (anyone know how to read Chinese??), but there are some check boxes in both Chinese and English that I can read. It appears that she is now in a foster home!!! This is exciting since I knew only 4 of the 13 had been moved to foster cared and nine more needed a sponsor ($40/m through www.grace-hope.org) to move out of the orphanage.

She's grown a bit since her last report in May. She is now 33.5 inches and 24 pounds which puts her at about the size of an average American 18-24 month old, according to growth charts. It also appears that she IS potty trained (there was no check mark there on the last form). Other boxes are checked for timid, shy, fairly introverted, having a ready smile, gets along well with other, obstinate sometimes, and closest to caretaker. A new item that was checked is that she CAN point to eyes, ears, nose & mouth when asked (the lack of check mark on the previous form had concerned me a bit). She is also able to put on her own shoes and can button & unbotton her clothes.

Most adoptive parents don't get an update so we're fortunate to have received this!! I love the new pictures which makes it a little easier to imagine what she'll be like in person. I'm excited to get to meet her and make her a part of our family! Hopefully soon! Hopefully Andy and Emily will recover soon so we can start thinking about our next trip. And I hope we'll all stay healthier this next time around.

Christmas in Florida

My sickos recuperating at home

Some of the cousins--there were two more there.

2/3 of my sisters and me.

Our home for Christmas.

Recuperating

We are home recuperating from our trip to Florida. We had a nice time with cousins and enjoyed swimming in our backyard pool, but two days before the cousins left, Emily came down with a fever of 103. Fortunately she responded well to ibuprophen and had stretches of near normalcy, but the fever kept coming back for five days straight. She was sick 7 out of our 11 days and still has a nasty cough. I could feel my body fighting off a fever and so far have escaped with just a cough, but Andy has been feverish for the last three days. We're all quarantined in our family room with the suitcases around us, still unpacked!

However, we do have some good news...our agency got an update on Olivia that we're expecting in our mail box soon. It will be in Chinese (with translation to follow, hopefully soon) so we won't know what it says yet, but will have a new photo! I'll post it when it arrives.

Merry Christmas!

Notice the Chinese writing? I believe I wrote (umm...cut and pasted) "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in Cantonese. The main language in China is Mandarin, but in the south, where Olivia is from, they speak Cantonese. (click image to enlarge)

Photo of Olivia's orphanage

This is Rong Xian SWI (Social Welfare Institute) where Olivia has lived for her first 3+ years. Built in 1952, the SWI's first international adoptions began in 2002. As of this August, there have been 47 children adopted internationally and 12 adopted locally. Also as of August, there were 27 staff members caring for 15 children under 18 and about 50 elderly people. We are glad that Olivia's SWI/orphanage is so small compared to some of the huge overflowing 8+ story buildings. We're hoping smaller means more individual attention, but it's still a poor substitute for a family.

I found most of the RongXian photos and above info from an organization called Grace And Hope (www.Grace-Hope.org) that has recently taken on the task of trying to recruit and train foster families in Olivia's town (and 15+ others in Guangxi). They also try to raise financial support for these foster families to get children out of orphanages and into loving foster families since the majority of Chinese orphans will never get adopted.

Since adding RongXian to their foster plan in August, four children have moved into foster homes while nine remaining children still need sponsors. We don't know if Olivia was one of the lucky four (since our info is from June before the foster plan began and Grace & Hope is not allowed to tell us) or if she is still in the orphanage.

I am so grateful that someone cares enough to reach out to these kids--my kid--and amazed that for only $40/m we can get one of Olivia's friends out of the orphanage and into a foster home. We can't adopt them all, but what a huge impact we can make in the life of another child. I hope all of Olivia's friends can learn what parents are, can have a place to call home, can attend school, and can have a chance for a bright future. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all nine get a sponsor!!

Photos of Olivia's Town, RongXian

RongXian Public Square
RongXian City Park
RongXian motor bike
RongXian Park
RongXian farmer at market
RongXian Public Square
Dyed paper or textiles drying

A river that flows like blood. In Olivia's town of RongXian there are more than 170 factories involved in paper dyes along the Xiujiang river with more than 3,000 employees. . .and more than 560 textile enterprises employing 16,100 workers. This is the economic backbone of a county that is classified as "impoverished" in the national ranking system. This industry also has multiplier effect on the rest of the local economy through transportation, food, service, etc. If this industry is shut down, the town economy would be devastated.

I can't find the town's population, but read somewhere that the population of the province of GuangXi has over 50 million people even though 70% of the land has mountains/hills!

Video: All I Really Want for Christmas

Steven Curtis Chapman is a Christian recording artist who is also the father of six children, three of whom were adopted from China. As a result of his passion for orphans, he and his wife started an organization called Shaohannah's Hope to help remove some of the financial barriers to adoption.

Since it's the Christmas season, I thought this would be a good time to share one of his music videos, "All I Really Want for Christmas [is a Family]." I couldn't figure out how to upload the video directly to the blog, but you can view it by clicking:

http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=allireallywant

If the above link doesn't work for any reason, you can also see it here: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=68977

FINALLY

Once we agreed to adopt Olivia, we had to send China a Letter of Intent (LOI) stating our plans. It's been almost a month now since we first got her picture on Nov. 20 (my Mom's B-day!) and I mailed our letter to our agency shortly thereafter. I knew it had to be translated before being going to China, but I'd hoped it had long been sent... However, our agency informed me today that our letter should be going out TODAY, Dec. 18, along with four others. While I'm glad it's FINALLY on it's way to China, I'm disappointed that it didn't go out weeks ago. I didn't realize that step was going to take soooo long. But then again, nothing with adoption is quick or easy!

I'm mostly disappointed because this means China has no idea yet that Rong Fu Tan is spoken for and our countdown hasn't even started yet :( According to those who have been there done that, I'm expecting it take 30-60 days from today to get our Travel Approval (TA) which will invite us to China. That means we should get our TA sometime between Jan 18th and Feb 18th. Once we have our TA, we can begin to set up appointments in China and book our flights. Assuming we'll need a few weeks notice between getting our TA and take off, it now looks like we probably won't be traveling until February or (early?) March.

Our travel may be further complicated by Chinese New Year, the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The 2007 new year begins February 18th and the festivities continue for 15 days. I know government offices shut down for at least part of this time, so we may be advised to avoid travel during that time.

The bright side of this is that we will have plenty of time to recover from our 10-day Christmas trip to Florida before having to hop on another plane!

trouble viewing video?

If you have trouble viewing the video, you may have better luck going straight to the source: http://www.bringmehope.org/dvd/index.html There are three versions that have varying lengths. I personally love the full 7 minute version :)

Video from BringMeHope.org

In our country, we're free to have as many children as we want, but the Chinese aren't so lucky. Due in part to China's sad history of mass starvations, the government decided to reduce the number of people competing for food by telling families that they are only allowed to have ONE child. Since girls don't remain part of the Chinese family (once married, they live with their husbands family and take care of their in-laws in old age), it's imperative to have a BOY to carry on the family line, care for the parents and appease the ancestors (they practice ancestor worship). A Chinese woman feels much pressure to produce a boy and has quite a dilemma if her one child ends up being a girl. The women often try to hide their pregnancy in case the baby is a girl that she can't keep. Those "unlucky" mothers of girls often feel compelled to illegally abandon the baby in the dark of the night, with the hope that the baby will be found be found and cared for by someone else. This is why the orphanages are overflowing with girls with no known birth parents and no known history. I feel sorry for those mothers caught in a dilemma we'll never have to face. What a burden to bear! It may not have occurred to us to adopt if we hadn't had so many fertility issues, but every time I see this video, I feel privileged to be in a position to make a difference in the life of a child.

Photos of Guangxi province

I found these photos of Guangxi online. I'm not sure what we'll actually get to see, but the Li River in the north and the waterfalls in the south (by the border of Viet Nam) are very beautiful! On the map, they don't look far from where we'll stay in Nanning, but with mountains and bad roads, trips in either direction can take 4+ hours each way. (click on photo to enlarge)

Map of Guangxi

Olivia is in the town of RongXian which is in the southeast of Guangxi, between Wuzhou and Yulin. I don't know the population of the town, but it appears to be a poor community that relies heavily on the textile trade. (click on image to enlarge)

Map of China provinces

Olivia's province in called Guangxi. It's in southern China and borders Viet Nam--light blue in this picture. (click on image to enlarge)

Emily is SEVEN!!

Yesterday was Emily's 7th birthday. She was born at 5:23 am, but when I referred to her being seven sometime yesterday afternoon, she had to correct me, saying, "No, silly, I'm not seven until AFTER I blow out the candles!" So last evening at Chuck E. Cheese, surrounded by a few neighbor friends, she officially turned seven :)

She was awe struck when ChuckE came out and was in heaven when she attached herself to him with the world's longest hug. I think she thoroughly enjoyed her special day!

More Pictures of Olivia!

Today we got the original file (in Chinese) and all FOUR of her referral photos--we'd only seen the two previously posted. The one with her shirt off was attached to her medical report to show her scar from open heart surgery. It's good to see that she's not all skin and bones :)

Granted, Chinese babies are typically smaller than Americans, but Olivia is really TINY! At her last medical exam in June when she was about 3.5 yrs. old, she was 30 in. tall and weighed 21 pounds. According to (American) growth charts, that put her at about the size of an average 10-14 month old here!! However, I've been reassured by plenty of adoptive moms whose children were/are also tiny, but perfectly healthy.

I was starting to shift my thinking towards a "big" girl, but she may look (and seem?) like a baby after all. But a walking, talking one!